Monday, November 17, 2008

Philadelphia

My 4th trip to Philadelphia for the American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting. City actually has some great food and I have eaten a few of my favorite meals, all-time there (Morimoto's & The Fountain at the Four Seasons Hotel). This go around, I had one memorable meal at "Cuba Libre". The menu is designed to reflect what Cuban food would be like if Castro hadn't fucked everything up...

Best $40 ever spent. My favorite was the ceviche by far. So much so that I went back there by myself at at some at the bar. I wanted Jennifer to try, so I came up with my own recipe that was surprisingly close...I took several short-cuts, but here goes-

Best to make over 2 daysAfter thawing scallops, combine in non-reactive bowl with juice, chiles, and onion and "cook" for about 4 hours. Strain out most of the juice (or scallops become overcooked and mushy), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat.Before serving, strain again and toss with tomatillo sauce, truffle oil, and liquid smoke (careful with this stuff, I added b/c I didn't want to make my own smoked tomatillo sauce, it worked well). To finish combine with as much goat cheese as you like (I used about 1/4 cup). Enjoy! I also bought some "veggie chips" in the hippie section of the grocery store that were made with yucca, plaintains etc that worked very well.

1 comment:

It is unbelievable how much food you got for $40, you could never have made it home for that price. I agree I don't know how they stay in business. sounds awesome.There are many different ways to make ceviche. We typically have used shrimp and sometime a whitefish or snapper. However, it seems a waste to use snapper on something like that. Key is absolutely fresh lime juice which cooks the fish. We generally got a fairly heavy on the cilantro, and why wouldn't you? Watching Top Chef, those guys sometimes lightly cooked their fish and then added the lime juice to make an accelerated ceviche. I've never seen those freezer packed scallops, I'll have to look for them. I guess that means that scallop season is over too. What are the options for getting good, fresh seafood if you don't have a good place in the town that you live in?